Serrin Rutledge-Prior

Philosophers and theorists of the animal "political turn" invite us to look at our relationships with other animals in political, and not merely moral, terms: asking questions that centre around the issue of how political communities and institutions ought to relate to other animals, as beings and communities deserving of justice. This project contributes to that scholarship by exploring how we might ground accounts of animal justice through un- and underexplored thinkers and intellectual traditions. In particular, the project engages in creative, critical re-readings of the works of well and lesser-known women political theorists in order to explore how their ideas might be useful for, and in turn informed by, thinking about our political relationships with other animals. This includes thinkers such as Hannah Arendt, Mary Astell, Anna Julia Cooper, Rosa Luxemburg, Christine de Pizan, and Simone Weil. In focusing on women’s political thought, the project also seeks to draw attention to how both women and animals have been unjustly excluded as subjects of political theory, and how the systems of oppression that have excluded them have mirrored and built upon each other.